Yarn carriers, such as cones, pirns, tubes, and the like of wide and varied design and size have heretofore been used by the textile industry for the production of yarn packages therearound. Depending upon the particular yarn handling process in which the carrier is to be utilized, prior art carriers have assumed various shapes as alluded to above, exemplified by cylinders, frustums, and the like. Prior art carriers have generally been manufactured by molding same of paper or polymeric material, or by spiral wrapping of paper into a tube.
In the production of a yarn package around a carrier, the carrier is located on a yarn handling machine where a strand of yarn is wound around the package in a predetermined fashion. In general, the strand is pulled onto the package due to rotation of the package by a driven spindle or other means, with the yarn being properly located along the length of the carrier by a traverse mechanism which reverses at the end of the carrier and thus applies a proper strand wind around the carrier. It is of course very important that once received around the carrier, the yarn remain in the position in which it was placed during winding, and that during subsequent unwinding, the yarn be removed in proper order and fashion. Such is particularly important during initial stages of production of the yarn package around the carrier since a misaligned strand at that point could well be detrimental to the quality and thus functionality of the overall package.
In order to prepare carrier surfaces for proper receipt of a yarn as a package is being produced, various techniques have been employed to roughen or otherwise condition the surface of the carrier for receipt of the strand of yarn. In so preparing a carrier surface, it is an important consideration that a strand wound thereon not become entrapped or otherwise entangled at the surface which could interfere with proper unwinding of the strand. Also as mentioned above, the strand should remain in place and not slough off the carrier. Since of course various sizes and types of yarns may be wound around like carriers, the particular surface employed for proper package preparation should likewise be suitable for the different yarns. In general such has not been available for the carriers molded from polymeric materials.
In preparing surfaces of yarn carriers for proper package production, several techniques have been employed. Paper carriers, for example, may be manufactured from sheet goods that bear distinct forming fabric indentations, or the like which afford a discontinuous surface along the carrier. This surface is generally suitable for the full spectrum of yarn. Molded plastic or polymeric carriers have been sandblasted or otherwise abraded to roughen the particular part of the carrier surface to receive the yarn. Further, designs had been incorporated in the mold in which the carriers are produced, such that a roughened surface is produced in situ as the carrier is molded. Molding is generally the technique employed according to techniques of the present invention. The present invention, however, overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art, in that, a carrier surface is now provided around which generally all yarns may suitably be wrapped to provide precision wound packages, and which permits high speed yarn transfer from the package at speeds of 1,200 or more yards per minute. Such capability is not available in the prior art molded polymeric carriers. However, there is no known prior art that is believed to anticipate or suggest the present invention.